1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a food developed specifically for frogs, and more particularly, to nutriment pellets or particles composed of multiple ingredients which include multiple strands of hair mixed with the nutriment and projecting from the surface of the pellets in random spatial orientation. The food may be prepared by initially pelletizing or otherwise compacting selected ingredients in certain proportions, and is subsequently mechanically introduced to the frog in such a manner that the induced movement of the food triggers the feeding instinct in the frog, and the frog is induced to "capture" the food with its tongue. When the food is thus lodged in the frog's throat, the projecting hair strands, which simulate the legs or wings of insects or other natural food, stimulate nerve endings in the throat, an event which triggers the swallowing action, and the food is ingested. Apparatus for introducing such a food to frogs is disclosed in my U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,002,160 and 4,038,947. This invention is applicable to virtually all frogs, including the bull frog, pig frog, leopard frog, and pickeral frog, in nonexclusive particular.
The raising of frogs for market and consumption has received increasing interest in the United States and in foreign countries in recent years. Frogs have for many years been shipped to major cities in the United States for consumption in restaurants, and have also been used for educational purposes, drug testing and biomedical research, and such uses have created an estimated 80 million dollar annual business. The Mexican government is also experimenting with the introduction of frogs into large impoundments built to supply water for irrigation purposes. The program is designed to provide a readily accessible food supply to supplement the restricted diet of the Mexican peasant living in the rural agricultural areas of Mexico. France has long recognized that frog legs are a delicacy, and large quantities of frogs are bred in France, chiefly for market purposes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Most of the frogs sold in the United States originate from the rice fields of India, Formosa, and Japan, and breeding of frogs in the United States has been chiefly undertaken for laboratory purposes using live food, with an accompanying danger of disease due to parasites and symbionts associated with such food. Frogs normally eat such food as insects, minnows, earthworms, crayfish and spiders, and are characteristically interested in living food. Accordingly, providing sufficient quantities of live food to sustain large numbers of frogs in commercial or laboratory breeding programs frequently proves to be not only troublesome and expensive, but often impractical. It has been found that not only do frogs require live food for consumption, but the live food must also be presented to them in a natural manner in order to induce them to eat. For example, frogs will not normally eat dead insects placed in their proximity, but will readily capture and eat live insects. Furthermore, a frog will readily strike a non-edible, moving object such as a small leaf or pebble, but after "capturing" the object, the frog will expel it, since the object does not stimulate the nerve endings in the frog's throat which induce swallowing. It has long been recognized by those skilled in the art that providing an artificial food which is susceptible of being properly presented to a frog in a life-like manner and is also palatable to the frog after being "captured", is a problem in raising frogs for commercial and laboratory use.
Of interest in developing a non-living food for frogs are the efforts made in developing artificial baits and food for fish and aquatic animals, primarily for the purpose of capturing the animals and fish. One of the greatest efforts in this direction has been development of the artificial lure such as the plastic lure which simulates the natural food of fish, which lure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,718,033 to C. I. Burke. The plastic baits are shaped to imitate crabs, grubs, fully developed insects, and the like, and are fitted with hooks for catching fish which attempt to swallow the lure.
Older lure manufacturing techniques are typified by U.S. Pat. No. 871,935 to John Henzel, which discloses construction of a lure from edible food stuff such as flour, rice, potatoe and egg, which material is enclosed in fabric such as muslin or gauze, and is shaped to resemble a frog, minnow, insect or other natural bait. Other efforts, such as the disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 2,874,048 to C. A. Waldov, have been directed to development of water-soluble fish baits. This patent discloses a dyed, gelatinous body which is shaped as a worm, minnow or other live bait, with a fabric binder to provide sufficient structural integrity. The gelatin slowly dissolves in the water and simulates bleeding, which is said to attract game fish. Odor-producing or flavoring substances can also be included in the gelatin as an added attraction.
A freeze-dried food for aquatic animals is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,361,566 to H. R. Axelrod, which food is formed of high protein materials such as meat, and water-activating adhesive substances. The food is said to provide a freeze-dried aquatic animal food which is capable of being immersed for long periods of time in water containing the animals, and the residue of which does not rapidly deteriorate. A similar food material is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,304 to H. S. Groninger, Jr., et al., which material acts as a protein binder for fish foods and fish bait compositions. The binder is said to have the texture of natural muscle tissue and is attrition-resistant. Other food compositions, and food compositions having a fibrous texture, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,093,483 to N. H. Ishler. The food compositions were developed to simulate the texture, flavor and appearance of commercially available meat products.
While the baits, lures and food compositions disclosed in the above described patents have as a primary purpose the objective of enticing a fish or aquatic animal to feed on the bait or lure, the frog food of this invention is designed specifically to induce frogs to swallow, the life-life characteristics necessary to induce capture by the frogs being imparted to the food by mechanical means. Thus, no effort is made according to the disclosure of this invention to provide a food which simulates any natural frog food, such as insects and the like. The frog food of this invention is not, therefore, characterized as a bait or lure in the generally accepted sense of these terms.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a non-living food for frogs which can be mechanically presented to frogs to simulate life, and when "captured" by the frogs, stimulates the frogs to swallow the food.
Another object of the invention is to provide frog food pellets or particles which can be made from commercially available animal and fish nutriment, which pellets or particles contain multiple strands of hair to effect a proper throat stimulation in the frog in order to induce swallowing of the food pellets.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a non-living frog food consisting of a pellet of nutriment having multiple strands of hair mixed with the nutriment and projecting from the surfaces of the pellet in random spatial orientation, which pellet can be presented to a frog in a variety of ways to encourage feeding, and when once "captured" by the frog, stimulates the frog to swallow and ingest the food.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a food for frogs which is composed of a compacted, pelletized nutriment of selected composition having multiple streamers or strands of horsehair mixed with the nutriment and protruding from the surfaces or surface of the nutriment body in random directions to texture the food, stimulate nerves in the frog's throat, and induce it to swallow the food.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a non-living frog food by mixing a quantity of nutriment from selected ingredients, adding multiple strands of horsehair to the nutriment mixture, rolling the mixture into an elongated or flat mass and cutting or breaking the mass into discrete pellets or particles having the strands of horsehair projecting from substantially all surfaces of the pellets or particles in random spatial orientation.